"I do not see that man."
Translation:Nie widzę tamtego mężczyzny.
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In previous excersises: i have used the word "tego" in this context and it was correct. Of course, the previous excersise was not negated, but read as follows: "i see that man" which i translated as "widzę tego mężczyzny". It said i was correct. In this excersise, i used tego (Nie widzę tego mężczyzny) and said i should have used " tamtej" (or something along those lines)...why?
I said "mężczyzny" but without the accents on e and z, why didn't Duo count this as a typo as it would usually?
You probably made otger mistakes besides that. By the way, those are nit accents, but diacritics.
2082
Please remind me: does a 'nie' cause the direct object to take the genitive case? With mężczyzny, it is irregular, so it has a feminine negative ending, but a masculine article?
Yes, a negated verb causes the direct object to be in the genitive case. And indeed, mężczyzna is masculine (so it takes a masculine article) but declinates like a feminine noun.
Not article but a demonstrative pronoun, Polish does not have articles. ;-) But yes, mężczyzna does decline similarly to feminine nouns in singular but nonetheless is masculine noun and takes masculine pronouns and adjectives.
Firstly, the plural in English would need to be "I do not see those men".
And in Polish, "Nie widzę tamtych mężczyzn".
Because the basic forms of those nouns have completely different endings, "mężczyzna" (it looks like a feminine noun although it's masculine) vs "koń".
How are these negated statements different from unnegated statements, except the use of nie?
I see that man = Widzę tamtego mężczyzny
It'd be useful if you could include the counter examples too to make the distinction clear.
Exercises like what you describe are currently being tested in the Spanish course.
No, "I see that man" is translated a bit differently. "widzieć" takes Accusative, and Accusative of "tamten mężczyzna" is "tamtego mężczyznę".
Now, negated Accusative results in Genitive (other cases stay unchanged when negated). "tamtego" stays the same, but it's "mężczyzny" indeed.
Normally words for male people (masculine animate nouns, to be exact) have Accusative and Genitive cases identical. This is one of exceptions because "mężczyzna" looks like a feminine noun, even if it's masculine.
why sometimes we put tamtego and other times tamtej? I need help to understand that!!
"tamtego" is either Genitive masculine (as here), Genitive neuter, or Accusative for masculine animate nouns. "tamtej" is Genitive feminine.
What does that mean? This article explains it all: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-demonstrative-pronouns/